Prologue 4 _George F. Scheer_ Part 1 “Downright Fighting” 10 The Story of Cowpens _Thomas J. Fleming_ Part 2 Cowpens and the War in the South 86 A Guide to the Battlefield and Related Sites Cowpens Battleground 88 The Road to Yorktown 91 Savannah, 1778-79 91 Charleston, 1780 91 The Waxhaws, 1780 91 Camden, 1780 92 Kings Mountain, 1780 92 Guilford Courthouse, 1781 92 Ninety Six, 1781 93 Eutaw Springs, 1781 93 Yorktown, 1781 93 For Further Reading 94 Index 95 Prologue [Illustration: On the morning of January 15, 1781, Morgan’s army looked down this road at Tarleton’s legion deploying into a line of battle. Locally it was known as the Green River Road. Four or five miles beyond the position held by Morgan, the road crossed the Broad River at Island Ford. For opposite reasons, Morgan and Tarleton each thought this field and its relationship to the Broad River gave him the advantage.] Splendid Antagonists As battlefields go, this one is fairly plain: a grassy clearing in a scrub-pine forest with no obvious military advantages. There are a thousand meadows like it in upstate South Carolina. This one is important because two centuries ago armies clashed here in one of the dramatic battles of the Revolutionary War. In January 1781, this clearing was a frontier pasturing ground, known locally as the Cowpens. The name came from the custom of upcountry stock raisers wintering their cattle in the lush vales around Thicketty Mountain. It was probably squatters’ ground, though one tradition says that it belonged to a person named Hannah, while another credits it to one Hiram Saunders, a wealthy loyalist who lived close by.